Thieves (Ladrones)

There are moments of reprieve in this mediocre Spanish drama in which a teenage boy, not long out of care, falls for a rebellious middle-class girl. He teaches her to shoplift and filch wallets, all the while searching for the mother who abandoned him as a boy. The film is at its best exploring class – early on we see the young thief and his hairdresser-boss struggle to shrug off their given roles: the kid from a bad home and the suspicious boss. Elsewhere it’s puffed up with a grand operatic soundtrack and slow motion sequences that leave you pining for the spit and grit of the Dardenne brothers.